TUF 10 Fighters Speak on Experience, Slice

And so the speculation begins for what I believe will be the
highest rated season ever for Spike TV’s “The Ultimate
Fighter.”

Wading through and meeting some of the new faces among the 16
hopefuls Friday at the UFC Expo in Las Vegas, I kept thinking that
the two finalists were only a few feet away with me (shooting ended
just a couple of days ago). However, some hit-you-over-the-head
vernacular coaching on behalf of Spike and the UFC, as well as the
threat of a $500 million lawsuit to whoever squeals, didn’t leave
me with any impressions of who advanced all the way.

The generic answer of the day?

“It’s going to be interesting.”

I bet it is, and I’ll be watching. But in the meantime, I tried to
get a feel for what is in store with what is sure to be an
intriguing personality menagerie.

Here are a few quotes from the players:

On the Experience

Wes
Sims: “When they told me to pack my bags, I grabbed a garbage
bag -- which is my custom luggage –- dumped all my worldly
possessions in it, and on my way I went.”

Zak
Jensen: “We all talked about how this is the best camp we’ve
ever had. There’s not a lot of gyms that have a lot of
heavyweights, so to have sixteen heavyweights in one place working
out was an amazing opportunity.”

James
McSweeney: “I didn’t really have to audition. They just called
me, said they’d seen one of my fights and was happy with it, and it
was straight in.”

Demico
Rogers: “Heavyweights on twin-sized beds. Horrible. (On staying
sane) You have to find your group. You have to get a core group of
guys and we hang out and we keep each other grounded. You find your
clique and you got to stay together.”

Marcus
Jones: (MMA or pro football) “I actually prefer MMA. There’s
not as much money involved, but you wake up, you’re doing something
that you love, you’re motivated to train. You just look forward to
doing it.”

Kimbo
Slice: “It was an opportunity that was presented. Somebody
knocked on the door and I answered. (It was) the opportunity to
fight on that level of the UFC, to prove myself as ‘The Ultimate
Fighter.’ That’s what it’s about.”

On Kimbo Slice

Demico Rogers: “The one thing I can say about him is that he’s
absolutely nothing like how people will think. He’s the nicest,
happiest, most friendly guy. He’s like a giant, scary cage-fighting
teddy bear.”